madbaker | it's fall - time to bake. With pumpkin.

This week's Resolution Recipe: Pumpkin Bars with Brown Butter Icing.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggses
2/3 cup canned pumpkin (I used fresh pumpkin from our CSA, roasted and run through the fud processor - it's the same thing really. Don't bother with the effort of using fresh unless you have it already.)
1 tsp vanilla (I used 2)
1 cup white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Heat oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggses, pumpkin, and vanilla; mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and gradually add to the wet mixture. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool and top with icing (below).

Brown Butter Icing:
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla (I used about 1 1/2)
1 Tbsp milk

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan heat the butter over low heat until it is a light brown. Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar, vanilla, and milk until it is smooth and well blended.

What worked: It was tasty. The quantity given for icing is half the original, which was a good amount - double would have been teeth-screamingly sweet.

What didn't: The bars were less than an inch high. I would have preferred using a 9x9 pan for a taller square. Also, this used up a very small amount of the pumpkin generated from the gourd.

Will I make it again? Probably not. It was tasty, but not remarkable enough to put into the rotation. On the other hand I might note the brown butter icing recipe.

What I'm reading: Charles Stross, Clan Corporate